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Anyone ever heard of “over lapping book times”
I saw a service writer today teaching an apprentice service writer how to do “over lapping” book times.
Example, if a tech is doing a head gasket job, and the customer needs a spark plug job the tech will do the spark plug job. And after they close out the RO they can charge the spark plug job under the head gasket job and save the customer $200. And the tech doesn’t get paid for the spark plug job.
It was this point I decided it’s time to start looking somewhere else.
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If say I’m doing an intake gasket on a car that requires removal of the intake to do plugs, I’m not going to add on the full tune up labor, but something should be added. Sometimes I throw it on for nothing just to eliminate other issues. I had a pcv job on a gm 3.6 which required changing valve covers. Did plugs anyways because I’m sure the oil in the intake didnt do the plugs any favors. But that was my discreSsion.
I’m familiar with labor overlap and agree with it to a point. In the case of the head gasket and spark plugs I don’t think full book should be applied to the spark plugs but there should be a little something tacked on.
Just an example.
Say a clutch job pays 5 hours.
Say a rear main seal pays 6 hours.
A customer should not be charged 11 hours if the rear seal is replaced while the transmission is out for a new clutch. Tack on an extra .5 or whatever.I’ve thrown in a few freebies here and there but it’s a judgement call and at my discretion. There seems to be a growing trend of forced freebies though. That free few minutes here and free few minutes there starts adding up….
I agree the customer shouldn’t be charged 11 hours bluesnut gave a really good example. But the free stuff is our discretion. And the advisors are talking about giving away .5, .8 stuff like that on over lap.
Its one thing if they ask, its another just to give things away and tweak book times for a nicer survey score.
Have you spoken to your service manager and or general manager about this practice? It’s money out of their checks as well.
Must not be a strong service advisor. I guess if you can’t sell it you have to give it away.
I’ve run into service managers and writers like that who for some weird reason (no spine maybe..) believe in giving things away.
My personal opinion is that a mechanic should get an automatic minimum half hour for every car he brings in the shop no matter the reason.When my kids were younger Friday night was reserved for taking them out for pizza, playing Putt-Putt, etc. Basically, a family night.
One Friday afternoon the service manager comes up to me and says one of the company’s good customers is stranded at some gas station in some little farm town 75 miles away with a fuel filter problem. The people at the station can’t find the filter so I told them over the phone where it was at and figured that was that.They called back 15 minutes later unable to find the stinking filter. Now the crap begins….
The service manager wanted me to get in MY car at quitting time, use MY gasoline, and spend Friday evening driving out there to change a fuel filter. Thinking I might go if the price was right I asked how I was going to get paid on this.
“You’ll get the usual; .2 hours for a fuel filter swap”. That’s it.I said no effin’ way and they could tow that SOB before I spent 150 miles of drive time, gasoline, and wear and tear on my car for .2 hours of pay.
Walked in Monday morning and there that POS was. Less than 5 minutes later the new filter was on and car was fine.It never ceases to amaze me how much an employer expects out of someone.
[quote=”Jasonw1178″ post=127448]Have you spoken to your service manager and or general manager about this practice? It’s money out of their checks as well.
Must not be a strong service advisor. I guess if you can’t sell it you have to give it away.[/quote]
I asked my supervisor about it. He said he can’t catch every single RO we close out. And its 3 advisors out of 5 we have that do it.
Our service writers get a monthly bonus based on surveys. So if one guy gives away $800 of work a tech did on a $3000 ticket, they still get a $600 monthly bonus for high surveys. And climb the dealership ladder to manager positions.
Keep in mind our owner just paid $30k to have our service shop floor resurfaced with white paint so he can see how dirty they are. And we have had a leaky roof for 5 months. Which has now started to leak on a power outlet.
So destroying the local competing dealerships, and a clean shop is more important than the techs that pay the bills by turning flag hours.
[quote=”Bluesnut” post=127452]I’ve run into service managers and writers like that who for some weird reason (no spine maybe..) believe in giving things away.
My personal opinion is that a mechanic should get an automatic minimum half hour for every car he brings in the shop no matter the reason.When my kids were younger Friday night was reserved for taking them out for pizza, playing Putt-Putt, etc. Basically, a family night.
One Friday afternoon the service manager comes up to me and says one of the company’s good customers is stranded at some gas station in some little farm town 75 miles away with a fuel filter problem. The people at the station can’t find the filter so I told them over the phone where it was at and figured that was that.They called back 15 minutes later unable to find the stinking filter. Now the crap begins….
The service manager wanted me to get in MY car at quitting time, use MY gasoline, and spend Friday evening driving out there to change a fuel filter. Thinking I might go if the price was right I asked how I was going to get paid on this.
“You’ll get the usual; .2 hours for a fuel filter swap”. That’s it.I said no effin’ way and they could tow that SOB before I spent 150 miles of drive time, gasoline, and wear and tear on my car for .2 hours of pay.
Walked in Monday morning and there that POS was. Less than 5 minutes later the new filter was on and car was fine.[/quote]It never ceases to amaze me how much an employer expects out of someone.
Our lead lube tech barely cracks 40 flag hours a week. Because we literally give away oil changes because the customers washer fluid wasn’t filled up to the very tip top. We give away tire rotations because the hourly guys did it.
Not sure about other places but we do an extensive multipoint and we are supposed to get paid .2, for that, then .3 for an oil change. The multipoint is literally given away for free every single time.
It amazes me how generous people are when it isn’t their time, and not their money.
Run into this a lot over here and the problem seems to be the CSS (customer satisfaction surveys) are more profitable then the bonus they make from labour sales, Are service advisor Get somewhere around $75 in bonus for every extremely satisfied survey that corporate send out they sent out 40 for this month so even getting 1/4 of the cherry picked jobs he’s submitted is still way more then hitting the labour sale rates and that is where the problem lies they could make a loss for all they cared as long as there css scores are good the dealership doesn’t seem to care.
One of the writers in my dealer started screwing over his team of techs like this, the team leader basically ripped up an RO in the dudes face and a fist fight ensued. I think the team leader reacted wrong but hell, I’d be lying if I told you I wouldn’t wanna beat the guy if it was me.
Nobody gets freebies in my dealership… Break a TPMS sensor and my service manager will coming riding on his flaming horse looking for war with the offender. Customer unhappy with the price? They can call him all they want, and he just gives them the proverbial middle finger. His favorite line is “its the customers fault”. If he finds out service writers are giving away hours, he will ride on a godly fire storm and smite the said Service Writer, in fact his past time is firing service writers. Coincidentally my dealership has very poor yelp reviews, unfortunately he denies even legitimate mistakes by the technicians.
LOL that seems a little extreme man but my dealer is kind of a mess as well, but I fly under the radar, work my hours and pretty much try not to step on any toes. I’ve come to realize this is the best way to deal with dealers in my experience.
[quote=”Kevin_1500″ post=127544]One of the writers in my dealer started screwing over his team of techs like this, the team leader basically ripped up an RO in the dudes face and a fist fight ensued. I think the team leader reacted wrong but hell, I’d be lying if I told you I wouldn’t wanna beat the guy if it was me.[/quote]
I ran into this the other day.
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